TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2021//
TI  - Celebrity suicide of a pre-World War I spy
JO  - Crisis
A1  - Arendt, Florian
A1  - Mestas, Manina
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - BACKGROUND: Alfred Redl, a colonel in the Imperial and Royal General Staff and Deputy Director of Military Intelligence for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was a leading figure of pre-World War I spying. The "spy of the century," as he has been called, died by suicide in Vienna on May 25, 1913. It was a big news story based on espionage, sex, and betrayal. <br><br>AIM: We aimed to test whether this celebrity suicide elicited an increase in suicides - a phenomenon consistent with the "Werther effect." Method: Given daily suicide numbers were not available, we conducted archival research. Civil death registers for the city of Vienna were used to identify suicides before and after Redl's suicide. <br><br>RESULTS: The analysis indicated that more people died by suicide in the immediate aftermath and that the quantity of news reporting on Colonel Redl predicted the number of suicides per day - a pattern that is consistent with the Werther effect. Limitations: Causal interpretations are limited. <br><br>CONCLUSION: Given the fact that the "Redl affair" is relevant for many scientific disciplines, we discuss multiple contributions to suicide research, history, media research, and research on intelligence and counter-intelligence.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0227-5910
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910/a000762
ID  - ref1
ER  -